This program is worse than freeware in MANY respects! Gee, I wish I didn't spend $900 on this thing.
1. For some reason, you cannot copy and paste toolpaths using Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V. Yes, apparently MecSoft hasn't really caught up to Windows 3.1 yet.
2. You cannot undo changes made to your toolpaths. Even though the keyboard shortcuts for copy and paste are not enabled, accidentally hitting the delete key will permanently erase your work.
3. Loading tools is cumbersome. Tool Libraries can be saved into two different types of files for some reason. The standard type does not save the tools' speeds and feeds (of course, RhinoCAM doesn't warn you about this). If you want to
really save your library you need to use the
other file format.
4. Toolpath creation methods do not work. Check out this thread on the RhinoCAM forum where I pointed this out to them...
http://www.mecsoft.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=6276
5a. The software is buggy. I've had Rhino crash on me about 6 times while working with RhinoCAM. I've never had it crash before.
Recently a new bug has shown up where it
DOES NOT SAVE YOUR WORK about 50% of the time.
5b. They only seem to update RhinoCAM when a new version of Rhino is released.
6. Bug reports are met with hostility and insults. Check the thread linked above for which I was banned from the MecSoft "Support" Forum.
Unfortunately you cannot see pictures posted to the MecSoft forum unless you log in. If anyone is interested, I can re-post the pictures here.
7. Tool selection is artificially limited. For instance Drilling operations only allow you to select drills and center drills from your tool library. At first this may make sense. But if you're like me and use a "vee mill" to do your spot drilling you're out of luck.
8. The user interface is unrefined.
For instance, the MOp (machine operations) creation interface is "always on top" (meaning the window is displayed above all other windows, regardless if Rhino is the active program or not. Even minimizing the main Rhino window will not get rid of the MOp creation dialog, neither do clicking the "Show Desktop" button in Windows 7 nor does hitting "WinKey + D" on the keyboard.
Another curious UI decision is that MecSoft did not include a way to access the speeds and feeds calculator from the tool creation dialog. If you're in the middle of creating a new tool and you'd like to use the calculator to enter all the different speeds automatically you have to...
- Save the tool (even though at the moment it's incomplete)
- Create a new MOp (yes, the only way to get to the calculator is through the MOp dialog)
- Go into the speeds and feeds tab
- Click the "Load From Table" button
- Struggle with the poorly made calculator to get the parameters you want
THEN - Open your newly created tool again
- Manually copy all the values from the MOp to the tool
- Save the tool again
See attached picture
9. The simulation mode is very inaccurate, too fast, and too slow - all at the same time.
Inaccurate - The virtual part is very rough. Sometimes areas that should be round are completely square. Arcs and diagonals are jagged. The display is enough to determine if a profile cut is on the correct side of the line, but not a whole lot more.
Too Fast - Sometimes the simulation will complete instantly leaving you wondering just how the part will be cut. If you're watching the simulation to find out in what order features are milled you may be out of luck.
Too Slow - When the part "stock" is displayed it slows my machine to a crawl. My computer isn't the fastest in the world but it's no slouch (Intel Core2Quad @ 2.4GHz (Q6600), 4 GB of DDR3 RAM, nVidia GTX280 video card (1 GB of video memory), OCZ Vertex SSD, running Windows 7 RC1 x64, 2560x1600 display). I get approximately six frames per second when the stock is displayed.
10. The program has very few options. The few options it
does have will sometimes they'll inexplicably revert to their default settings - without warning. Sometimes my post processor setting will jump to the top of the list, for seemingly no reason. I've also had the "Output arc/spiral/helix as linear segments" options seemingly randomly reselect themselves.
11. The program checks for updates EVERY TIME IT'S OPENED. This process needs administrator privileges for some reason which means if you're using Vista or Windows 7 you need allow/disallow a UAC window every time the program starts (depending on your UAC settings of course) just to reconfirm MecSoft has not released any updates ([i]see 5b above[/b]).
12. Features that were present in RhinoCAM version 1.0 Basic have been removed from RhinoCAM version 2.0 Standard. Want to edit your toolpaths like you did with the old version? That'll be another $3199 to upgrade to PRO.